Just what are "Locals"

[max]

This thread has probably been touched on RS before, but with all the crap going on about the naming of locations in reports I thought I'd ponder the above question. So..

1.Real locals are the people who sweep sand off their footpath and wash salt off their homes windows.
AND..
2.Your average so called local in my view is an myopic twat, who refuses to surf anywhere else apart from his chosen break no matter what the conditions.
OR..
3.for those who surf the northern beaches of Sydney..anyone who lives west of Pittwater Rd should not even contemplate calling him or herself a local. If you have to cross that road to get to the beach you are a "WESTIE".

You young ones just think yourselves lucky that these are relatively peaceful times for surfing, ask your dads what "localism" was really like last century.

[Johnno]

[Boozer]

Sorry about that chief............. (great avatar)

A local is someone who has frequented a break over a long period. Pure and simple.

And regardless of which side of Pittwater / Barrenjoey Road. (personally I use Wakehurst Parkway)

Obviously they've become experienced to the local conditions, and not just one break.

I reckon what rights that deserves is more debatable.

[Gunther]

In my opinion, your a local if you can walk to the break, then surf it for 3 hrs whilst its going off, then be able to make it home alive!

I've done it, and its an hours walk for me!

[Spoon]

Nowadays it is people with wealth who can afford the housing prices so close to the coast. So does money buy you localism?

[filthbarrel]

In its most hideous form - a local is someone who started surfing a break before you.

Also used to refer to surf rat desert dwellers in Baja.

Think about it.

[JEEBUS]

It seems spoon is right I used to be a "local" down at Bondi (sorry i'm not from the northern beaches) but after moving out of Mummy and Daddy's house and fending for myself for the past 7 years (which is something alot of the little "local" sh!ts on the beach should experience) there is no way I could afford to be a "local" at any of Sydneys beaches on 60k with a wife and newborn baby.

maybe some of you "local" people should respect the fact that not all of us can afford to be locals and that we love to surf just as much as you, and should not be treated as second class citizens just because Mum and Dad dont pay our way

[Johnno]

Up here you are not regarded as a local untill you have live here for 12 years.

So its not just a case of having the cash but you also need to be commitment and for me if you have surfed a spot everyday it breaks for that amount of time then yes you can start to regard yourself as local, but not before then.

Got earn you stripes.

[Clif]

why the ambiguous figure of 12 years johnno?

as many are pointing out money is buying localism, or purchasing future rights.

that said, the people who worry about being a local tend to be the ones who can't perform or read the surf as well as others.

couldn't a local be the one who can read the resident waves for tides, warps, twists etc. at a glance. and you needn't be living on that beach to do that.

[filthbarrel]

That is stupid -12 years. Who designated this time limit? What criteria did they use? Hopefully it was written with a tongue in cheek, set the cat among the pigeons type attitude. Cause I cannot imagine a meeting coming to orderunless . . .

"What's on the agenda, Pa?"

"Some hippy wants to know how long they have to live here to be a local, Ma"

"Tell 'em 12 years, Pa".

"OK, but I would think 30 000 years of being in this valley would be a more appropriate answer to those pesky anthros coming up here and looking for cave paintings, Ma".

Mate, where I live 12 years means you are a blow-in.

Unless your granpappy shooed away the indigenous types with a rifle spitting buckshot, have at least a few unexplained relatives in the bloodline and a touch of the tarbrush yourself, you Sir, are no local.

[JEEBUS]

Sorry Johnno I meant the Sydney locals everywhere else is fine,
Do you know i had my car trashed by one of the Bondi "youths" cos i dropped in on him yeah i know i shouldn't have done it but the little pr!ck deserved it and should respect his elders i mean ffs I had been surfing that beach before he was even a twitch in his coffee sipping daddies scrotum

[chunk38]

agree ... locals are people that respect the beaches they surf ...watch after there mates ....and most of all have fun in the surf....its the tourest that come to towns like mine and think they own the place ,,, that make locals like me take a stand and wil tell you to go home...come with respect and you will get waves...its like any good surf spot..if its on the locals are gunna be running the show...

[Johnno]

It's just a figure that has come up over time and I guess shows how much you are committed to a place.

I have seen a lot come a go, who after a short time regard themselves as local but are not regarded local by the old crew.

Comes down to how committed you are to the place, week-end warriors don't count sort of got to be hardcore to the spot.

It's 7 days a week, and how much you are prepared to place surfing above everything else. For me surfing comes first everyday and has done so for the last 40 years and this is due in part to growing up through a period when local-ism was full on.

[Clif]

this topic has been done to death, but filthbarrel has a point. you're all blow-ins unless your people have lived there for 40,000 plus years. nice ma and pa banter filthbarrel lol. but me sister ... ooops ... i mean wife was left out

[Nick Carroll]

Owl Chapman once said, "A local is just someone with nowhere else to go."

Owl should know, he's been sitting on the sand at Sunset Beach for 30 bloody years.

It seems to me that being a "local" is part of a surfer's growth pattern. You're a grommet, then you're part of a pack of grommets, getting free of your parents, then around the age of 18 or so you become a "local" somewhere. Whether you live on the beach or not doesn't mean much in this context -- one of my beach's hardest core locals grew up in Penrith.

So you're a "local" for a good long time while you learn some important lessons about surfing, you get to know a spot in all its moods, you make some lifelong mates, you move around in the pecking order and learn respect (giving and getting), maybe there's a club at the beach and you compete a bit.

Then at some point you might take the next step and transfer that learning onto bigger stages -- travel to different oceans, maybe live somewhere else for a while, break the mould. Then you come back and you're still a local, but you're not a "local", if you know what I mean. You outgrow localism. You come to understand there's more to being a surfer than being a "local".

Maybe you don't take that next step, or the steps after that, you just stay a "local". This can be fine especially if you have a life outside the water! It's nice to relax and have a spot in a familiar lineup for those good days. But it does mean your growth as a surfer stops at "local" -- and if you aren't aware of the choice to stop, it might cause you to feel vaguely stalled in life. You become bitter, grumpy, you resent the next generation of surfers, you guard your "local" status, you think that's all you have. Right there I suspect is the source of truly virulent "localism".

Anyway I hope everyone who surfs gets to be a "local" at some spot for a while, it's a good thing for your surfing ... but don't get too stuck there! 'Cause eventually, down the track somewhere, it'll go bad on you.